1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a new and improved method, system and apparatus for treating and converting waste paper materials or by-products into useful forms. More particularly, the invention relates to the treatment of waste paper materials to convert these materials into a more useful form whereby the material may be used as a plant mulch, an aggregate for lightweight concretes, a fertilizer, an animal feed and/or constituent thereof, chemical feed stock, and other uses such as in recycling processes. Cellulosic fibers which are readily available in waste paper materials are valuable for use as dry forage material in feeds for cattle and other ruminant animals because of their fiber content and their energy value. The present invention provides a means wherein waste paper materials are converted from the raw material available into a more useful form such as extruded pellets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,877 discloses a pelleted animal feed wherein cellulosic waste material is used in conjunction with green forage material. U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,304 is directed to a method of producing pelleted, slow release NPN feed for ruminant animals from polysaccharide materials and waste paper is indicated as an ingredient in the feed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,253 is directed to a process for making an NPN ruminant feed supplement wherein cellulosic commodities are mixed with a urea acid. U.S. Pat. No. 2,472,663 discloses a cattle feed including digestible paper pulp as an ingredient, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,932 discloses a process of selective hydrolysis of lignolcellulose materials as saw mill wastes. U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,208 is directed toward a comminuting method and apparatus wherein a plurality of circular cutting discs are provided to move in close proximity with a cylindrical cage of rings forming a sizing screen for chopping or comminuting material into small particles. U.S. Pat. No. 2,831,769 discloses a method for the preservation and improvement of the assimilibility of feed stuffs wherein waste newsprint is utilized for cellulosic fiber and U.S. Pat. No. 2,715,067 discloses a fodder for ruminant animals wherein waste newsprint is utilized as a digestible substitute for other types of cellulose containing green roughage materials such as alfalfa, grass and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,924 discloses a method of making pelletized animal feed which includes molasses mixed with other materials and live steam to form a pelleted finished product.
Machines such as Forage Harvesters for example, the FOX, Model 3000 chopper manufactured by the Koehring Farm Division and described in their catalogue No. 716-10107 (incorporated herein by reference) have been utilized to chop and grind up forage materials such as grasses, straws, legumes and the like, for use in animal feeds. Various types of tub grinders such as those manufactured by the Farmhand Co., Hopkins, Minn., have also been used for chopping and grinding hay, straws, grasses and the like. Various types of machines such as hammermills, grinders, paper shredders, balers, bag filler and pellet mill extrusion machines are available. The California Pellet Mill Co. of San Francisco, Calif., manufactures and sells a wide variety of pellet mills for use in making pelleted animal feeds, for example, the CPM Series 7000 mills as described in their Bulletin thereon (incorporated herein by reference) is well adapted for this process.
For converting and preparing waste materials, the use of hammermill type machines results in the formation of a very dry, dusty, fuzzy, ultra lightweight (1/2 - 2# per cubic foot) lint-like material resembling cotton. This material may be baled, it may be mixed with other feed ingredients and other materials such as cement, fertilizer, etc., but with the great bulk and fluffy nature, the steps including proportioning, blending, etc. are very difficult and costly. Also, much dust is created and the material is greatly subject to fire from friction and in fact, explosions are not uncommon in such systems of paper preparation.
Before sheets or other shapes of waste paper can be used in any dry or semi-dry form they must be prepared and put in condition for further steps, such as mixing, blending, conveying and proportioning with other materials. This is required, for example, because animals will not ordinarily eat corrugated boxes as such unless they are starving. The preparation steps are important from a use standpoint, from a cost standpoint, and from a subsequent manufacturing and shipping standpoint.
Waste paper materials treated in hammermill type machines are very difficult to form into pellets and the pellet form is highly desirable because of the reduction in dust and because of the ease in handling, weighing and blending of a pelletized product. Also, pellets are densified making transportion costs much more economical. As yet, there has been little or no success in pelletizing hammermill treated waste paper materials.
It has been found in the prior attempts to utilize waste paper materials such as corrugated box board, paper carton material and other waste paper products for integration into animal feed and other uses as a source of cellulosic fiber that often times the success or failure in terms of assimibility or digestibility of the feed by the animals is dependent upon the method and type of physical preparation of the waste paper material. In addition, it has been found that in the prior art methods of treatment of such materials it is extremely difficult if not impossible, to economically palletize or form the material into pellets which are readily intermixed and integrated with other nutritional elements in animal feed.
For example, attempts have been made to chop up sheet waste paper materials in conventional type hammermills with little success. Similarly, tub grinders have met with unsatisfactory results when used for grinding up or comminuting waste paper sheets into fodder-like material suitable for integration into animal feed. It has been found that the method of preparation of the materials is an extremely important factor in making the waste paper materials readily assimible and digestible by the animals. Moreover, it has been found that the method of preparation of the waste paper materials also is an important factor in the success of forming the material into pellets in existing and available pellet mills and extrusion machinery.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method of treating waste paper products to convert these products into a more useful form.
More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method of producing extruded pellets from waste paper products such as corrugated box board, paper board, paper and the like.
It is another object of the invention to provide a new and improved method, system and apparatus for treating waste paper materials to convert these products into forms which are useful as plant mulches, fertilizers, fuels, animal feeds, chemical feed stock, lightweight concrete aggregates, and other use such as recycling processes.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved method of treating waste paper materials to convert the same into more useful forms which method results in reduced or no dust problems and which results in a finished material that is more dense, easy to handle and blend, easy to proportion and mix and generally less troublesome than hammermill treated waste paper products.
It is another object of the invention to provide a new and improved method of converting waste paper materials into useful forms which is capable of handling corrugated box board in a variety of forms, paper board in a variety of forms, and paper in a wide variety of forms including magazines and newspapers.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for making animal feed material from waste paper materials and the like.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method and apparatus of the character described wherein the finished product is highly adapted for use in animal feeds either in baled, bagged or pelletized form.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for making animal feed material in pellet form from waste paper products and the like.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for making animal feed material in accordance with the previous objects wherein a pelletized material is produced and is readily intermixed with other feed materials containing protein and/or carbohydrate and other desirable materials to provide either a supplement or a complete or balanced, highly nutritional animal feed for ruminant animals.